Tea: From Medicine to Beverage to Art

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Professor Wayne Farris will present "From Medicine to Beverage to Art: Technology and Changes in Tea Consumption" as part of the History Workshop series on "Capitalism in Crisis." This presentation is part of an attempt to re-write the history of Japanese tea. Conventionally, the history of tea in Japan is synonymous with the story of the “Way of Tea” also known as chanoyu or sadô. While the story is accurate so far as it goes, in my view it fails to provide the agricultural, technological, and commercial context in which the Japanese art of tea developed.

Professor Farris examines this context over the period 1100-1600. Until about 1250, tea was considered a medicine, as exemplified by Drink Tea and Prolong Your Life authored by Yôsai (1141-1215). Beginning in 1250, however, technological changes arising in Song China and imported to Japan by thirsty Buddhist clerics and warriors converted the brown, bitter liquid into a sweeter, more delicious beverage. These technological changes may be documented both in Song China and in late Kamakura Japan through the cache of documents connected to the Kanezawa warrior household. These inventions eventually were responsible for the spread of tea consumption to the commoner populace after 1400. Then, two more technological changes originating in Japan during the sixteenth century, along with the importation of a new strain of Camellia sinensis from Ming China, made the beverage even more palatable. Uji became the area producing the finest tea in Japan and was the preferred tea for the masters of the 1500s. Sen Rikyû’s art is unthinkable without the various technological changes that commenced long before his time.

Event Sponsor
History, Mānoa Campus

More Information
History Workshop, 956-7407, histwork@hawaii.edu

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